Chocolate Birthday Cake with Whipped Chocolate Buttercream

Cake ? What is the occasion ? Yay ! Its my birthday today , Feb 1st :)  Woke up to a sunny day (oops , I got up at 11 o clock in the morning). No No, actually I got up at 7 in the morning and went back to sleep at 8.30 because everyone else were sleeping happily.
 
Later I have been talking to friends who called to wish me Happy Birthday. It feels so good when you are treated special and everyone says good things to you. Cake cutting ceremony will be held in the evening when my son comes back from school. My son had been reminding me about my birthday almost everyday for the past one week. He wanted to bring his friends home for the celebration. He suggested chocolate cake since all his friends like only chocolate cake it seems. So I was planning ahead for this cake. I made this chocolate cake day before yesterday and kept it in the fridge with clip wrap around. Yesterday I made the whipped butter cream frosting and dark chocolate ganache. Completed the cake today. Its a rich three layer chocolate cake with whipped butter cream frosting and drizzled with dark chocolate ganache.
 
This recipe is from Tieghan's http://www.halfbakedharvest.com , I book marked this recipe long back and wanted to make this for the birthday. Her recipes are fool proof and works magically for me. I can blindly follow her recipe. Chocolate cake is rich and it has very nice coffee taste to it. This one has egg and it definitely tastes better that those eggless version of chocolate cake I tried previously. Instant coffee actually enhances the flavour of chocolate.
 
Total Time: 1 Hour
Prep:  10 min
Cook : 25 min

 

Yield:  One 8 inch Three layer Chocolate cake

Ingredients

• 2 and 1/4 cup All purpose flour
• 2 and 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 and 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 and 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs at room temperature
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoon buttermilk ( add 1 tablespoon lemon Juice to milk and leave it for 10 mins. Milk will get curdled. Use this curdled milk for buttermilk)
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoon plain thick curd/ hung curd
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoon clear vanilla extract
• 1 cup hot water+ 2 tablespoons instant coffee powder 

Whipped Chocolate Buttercream For 3 Layers

• 2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3 and 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 4-5 tablespoons fresh cream

Dark Chocolate Ganache

• 1 cup grated dark chocolate
• 1/2 cup amul fresh cream

Directions

1. Pre heat Oven to 180 C. Grease three 8 inch round cake pans and keept it ready

2. Mix AP Flour, Sugar, Cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt  in a mixing bowl. Set aside

3. In a separate bowl add eggs, buttermilk, hung curd, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and beat together with a hand mixer

4. Now slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and mix together with a hand mixer on low until there are no lumps of flour or cocoa powder

5. Add the instant coffee powder to the hot water and mix well until coffee powder dissolves. Now add this hot coffee to the cake batter and mix well. This batter will be slightly thin

6. Pour this batter among the three prepared greased pans and bake at 180C for 30 min until toothpick inserted comes out clean

7. I do not have a big oven , so I baked the cakes one after another

6. Let the cake remain in the pan for 10 min. After 10 min invert the cake on a cooling rack lined with parchment paper and let it cool

8. When the cake is cooled completely, you can frost the cake or cover it with cling wrap and keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready for frosting. I made the cake one day in advance. so refrigerated the cake for 24hrs

Preparing the frosting :

1. Add softened butter and icing sugar in a deep bowl and mix it with a spoon

2. Using a hand mixer beat butter and sugar for 4 to 5min until its fluffy

3. Add cocoa powder and vanilla extract and beat again. scrape down the sides if required

4. Add fresh cream and whip the butter for 2 to 3 min until its fluffy

 

Preparing dark chocolate Ganache :

1. Grate dark chocolate in a microwave safe bowl

2. Add fresh cream to the dark chocolate and mix

3. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir the chocolate and microwave it again for 30 seconds

4. Continue this for 15 to 30 seconds more until the mixture turn smooth without any chocolate pieces

5. Keep it overnight; no need to refrigerate

Assembling the cake :

1.On a cake board, place 1 layer of prepared chocolate cake with flat side up. If you have refrigerated the cakes then keep it outside the fridge and bring it to room temperature

2. Apply frosting over the flat side of cake using a spatula

3. Place the second cake on top and spread the frosting on the top

4. Place the third cake on the top of the frosting. Spread frosting on the top and on the sides of the cake

5. Using a star nozzle and piping bag decorate the cake however you wish to decorate

6. drizzle chocolate ganache in the center of the cake and along the sides